The Best Mars Landing Video Ever!

In the weeks since we first saw the both dazzling and disappointing video of the Curiosity rover landing on Mars, space- and video-enthusiasts have spent hours upon hours trying to make it better. The original video featured a herky-jerky 4 frames-per-second frame rate that made it look as much like a slide show as history in motion. In August, Dominic Muller smoothed out the frame rate by adding in new frames in between the old ones, and the results were awe-inspiring.

For this breathtaking new version, filmmaker Bard Canning spent over a month not only boosting the video’s frame rate, but steadying the camera movement, cleaning up the image, and rendering it in 1080p. As Wired explained, ‘The result provides the best possible video accuracy while really enhancing the footage.’ (You can also watch a before-and-after comparison.) But Canning also added something none of the other renderings even attempted: sound. There was no sound in the original, so Canning simulated the sounds himself. As we explained recently on Brow Beat, there is plenty of sound on Mars (if not in outer space); it just doesn’t travel quite as well as it does down here. So you can watch this video with the volume down, if you must, but we recommend blasting it.